Popular+Groove




 * || =Popular Groove =

Sean Harkey
sean.harkey@gmail.com || ||

Overview
I was looking for something fun. I remember high school like it was yesterday. The changes a high school student goes through are chaotic and diverse. Music was huge during this time of change for me. My taste in music evolved from a deep-rooted popular mainstream to a wide range of classic artists and independent musicians. Why not create an Egame, that would appeal to the high school crowd, the ever-changing 13-18 year olds who are sponges for musical variety? There are a few monumental pieces of the puzzles that tied musical experience together for me. The birth of FM 94.9 "It's about the music" in San Diego, Pitchfork Media (Based in Chicago), Rolling Stone Magazine, and the Billboard Music News, Reviews, and Chart Ratings. The goal of the egame is to combine elements of each rating or review source and develop a game that is not only interactive, competitive for students, but also fosters the development of writing ability by participating in active critique and review writing. The ultimate goal for the project is to inspire a game that challenges young students to explore new music, write about that music: the feeling, the mood, the instruments, the emotion, the context, compare and contrast, examine lyrical content and vocabulary, and in turn also boost their own vocabulary and composition abilities.

= Instructional Objective = High school learners will be submersed in an environment where they can sample music of upcoming album releases, rating systems, and music critiques, such that they are able to compete with other classmates in artist and album ranking systems, write their own music reviews and critiques, and be rewarded for their continuing effort.
 * __What does a good review look like__ **** __?__ **
 * __What makes a good music review?__ **
 * Detailed analysis:
 * Breaking down an album by tracks and analyzing tracks individually.
 * Compare & Contrast!
 * Examining Context and Background Information
 * Who are the artists? Where are they from? How does their music relate to their experience?
 * Promotion or Detraction?
 * Is this album better than their previous releases? How does it rank with respect to their other album releases?
 * Assigning a realistic score or numerical evaluation:
 * Letter Grade? 1-10? 1-100?
 * __What will the game include?__ **
 * 1) Predictive Ranking (Will this album reach the Billboard Top 100? If so what number? If not what number?)
 * 2) Ranking Perseverance (How long will the album stay on the top 100? How long in a certain range?)
 * 3) Predictive Top 10.
 * 4) Short Reviews (250-500 words)
 * 5) Personal Ranking (On a scale from "0.0 - 10.0" and "F - A" where would you rank this album?)

Learners
The game is designed for individual high school students between the ages of 13 and 18. The game is designed to be centered in high school courses that stress importance in writing and the development of writing skills. English Literature, Critical Writing, and History courses are a good. The age range is inclusive for a wide age range of developing students. The younger students (13-15 years old) tend to still have issues with attention and focus and staying on task. Additionally, the younger students tend to be less motivated than older students. The older students possess some similar characteristics of the younger students, however generally the older students are more disciplined and inclined to be more motivated and geared towards learning and instruction. The game as a finished product, is meant to be a fun learning incentive for hard work in the class room. Learners are required to follow the curriculum and standards for an individual class they are taking like English or History. Popular Groove allows the student to step out of "content box" and allows them to experience something new and more relevant to their personal experience. A large majority of learners in the 13-18 age range watch television and listen to music on their own accord. Popular Groove allows the student to explore the music they like and become exposed to new music genres. At the same time, Popular Groove is structured around standards for English/Literature/Critical Writing, and Visual/Performing Arts. As additional incentives, instructors could purchase itunes or music download gift cards as rewards for writing consistent reviews and for scoring well in predictive ranking.

Context of Use
Popular Groove will be available within the context of high school History, English/Literature, and Performing Arts Classrooms and is available for all grades 9-12. The game is recommended to be incorporated into daily curriculum or can be used as an incentive for those who complete in class projects or assignments on time. The game is recommended to be set up on classroom computers with headphones and is intended to be used by one student, on one computer, at one given time. The game can also be played at home, as the students are given a login ID and a password to login and play. Additionally, teachers and instructors will be granted special access as moderators of their students process. Teachers will be admin a group of their students in the context of the game, and have the power to award additional points for excellent grammar, vocabulary, and thoughtful content in the writing of music reviews. For signing up a class, students are given the opportunity to compete for various prizes every month such as: Itunes gift cards, mp3 players, and various accessories.

Scope
The game is continuous and ongoing, it can be played in the context of a week, a month, a couple months, a school year, or all the way through high school.

Object of the Game
The object of the game for players to earn various points for their ability to predict and rank how artists and their albums will fall on the billboard charts and in notable music reviews. Points are awarded collectively through a number of conditions:
 * 1) Predictive Ranking (Will this album reach the Billboard Top 100? If so what number? If not what number?)
 * 2) More points for getting closer to the actual result, less for being further away.
 * 3) Ranking Perseverance (How long will the album stay on the top 100? How long in a certain range?)
 * 4) Points awarded for guessing how many weeks an album will stay on the chart and within a range on the chart. More points for being close to the number of weeks, less for being further away.
 * 5) Predictive Top 10.
 * 6) Predict the top 10 every week, points awarded for albums that make the cut and for matching your ranking.
 * 7) Short Reviews (250-500 words)
 * 8) Points awarded for completing. More points awarded for more writing.
 * 9) Personal Ranking (On a scale from "0.0 - 10.0" and "F - A" where would you rank this album?)
 * 10) Points awarded for ranking. More points awarded if rankings match those of other rankers. (Other students and actual reviewers.)

Competing Products
None found. :) = = =Design Details=

DESIGN PAGES

 * **MAIN INTERFACE**: Links to upcoming albums, links to preview songs, links to music reviews, daily scoreboard of high scores, examples of excellent reviews by competing students.
 * The challenge of the main interface is to immediately submerse a student in an environment that is easy to navigate and captures and holds the attention of the user. The main page will open with a flash video that captures the essence of the game and how the game is played.
 * Video: Does music move you? Do you like these artists? Are you curious about what other music is out there? What if you could engage in a world where you predict the success of successful artists out there...and were highly rewarded for you say? "Popular Groove: Get Started"
 * Intro video to the main interface:
 * To get started explore some upcoming music by some emerging artists.
 * How would you rank this from 0.0-10.0, by letter grade?
 * Earn Points by writing your own reviews. The more you write the more points you will earn.
 * Predict how songs and albums will fall on the Billboard top 10 and 100!
 * You earn points for every successful prediction. You earn points for participating.
 * It's such a good song/album! You earn points for predicting how long that song or album will stay on the top 10 or 100 or in any 10 song range on the chart.
 * **MY.GROOVE Menu:** Simple and easy to follow menu guiding the competitor to a personal page for each category of competition. MY.GROOVE determines where the competitor goes, there are easy to follow links taking the user to several simple personal pages where they can predict top 10, top 100, rank reviews, and write reviews.
 * This is where the magic happens: More often than not, the student will use this page as their main source of starting predictions, and writing reviews to start earning points.
 * **MY.GROOVE:** A Personal Webpage for competitive predictions and reviews were the user can manage their own song and album picks, write reviews, and check the details of their score for each category.
 * Each personal "MY.GROOVE" page is customized to a certain method of prediction (top 10 vs top 100) and provides easy to use tools to select the songs, albums, and write reviews.
 * MY.GROOVE contains a easily accessible flash video to demonstrate the process of selecting songs and albums, and the tools needed to write a simple review. Review writing will be structured similarly to that of a wiki or a blog.
 * //Technical Elements//**
 * Adobe Dreamweaver, Quicktime
 * MAC/PC
 * File formats: .JPG, MP3, PDF, .DOC, .HTM(L)

Motivational Issues
The student is in control at all times. One significant motivational issue faced in the 13-18 age range, is inspiring relevance. Using [|Keller's ARCS model]as inspiration for the egame, there need to be several elements that provoke, inspire, excite, delight, and satisfy the students who play. The game itself is meant to be a fun alternative to the everyday context of high school academics. Teachers are encouraged to use the internet based game as means of creating a positive incentive for focus, success, and excellent time management in the classroom. High school students are generally overwhelmed with assignments, projects, and tests for different subject areas. Popular groove is recommended to enhance the context of at least 2 different subject areas: Performing Arts and English/Literature/Writing based courses.

__Keller Elements:__

 * **Attention**: Flash videos, drawing the user into the look, feel, background, and context of the game. Flash videos introducing the user to gameplay and how to navigate through the site.
 * **Relevance:** Content is based on Popular music which accounts for at least 80% of the general music taste and music interest on high school campuses nation wide.
 * **Confidence**: Students are given absolute control of their success and are rewarded for participation. If engaged and competitive, an individual student can easily begin to rack up a healthy number of competitive points.
 * **Satisfaction:** Students are rewarded with bragging rights, public announcement of success and high scores, praise by teacher/instructor, and reward for success and job well done both in classroom and on the egame. Rewards include gift cards, music, accessories, and by instructor choice extra credit and praise.

Design Process
Finding an idea for an egame was the most challenging part of the entire experience. I took the idea of Fantasy Football presented in class to heart as primary source of inspiration. I wanted to create a game that loosely followed the design principles of Fantasy Football and apply it a subject that is close to the heart: Music. After brainstorming, I turned to a popular source of music reviews and ranking: The Billboard Charts. I thought, "Why not make a game that is competitive for music songs and albums." Similar to individuals picking a fantasy team of all star players, individuals listen to upcoming albums and songs, select picks from songs and albums and predict where those songs and albums will fall on the Billboard Charts. As I put more thought into the egame, I decided that it may be a good idea to take the concept of the game and amp it up another level. In my free time I like to read music reviews. The main source of music reviews that I read are those produced by Rolling Stone Magazine (Based on letter grading) and Pitchfork Media (Based on a scale from 0.0-10.0) Both review resources provided a few more elements to add to the competitive framework of the game design. With all the of the competitive elements in place, it was time to look at what else was needed as resources for the students. The main page design is a key component. The main page is easy to navigate and clearly defines where the student can: With all the pieces in place, I began storyboarding to design a simple, yet effective format for the egame. Simple shapes and colors would drive the layout of the webpages that the students would be using. Young individuals tend to be very intuitive and can very easily figure everything out. Assuming that the design is simple, and that young students are smart and intuitive, the less likely there is to be any confusion about where to go and what to do in the game. The idea for flash videos came into mind as a means of capturing attention, encouraging exploration, and inspiring excitement. The remainder of the design process was to ensure that an individual could get from Point A to Point B. Looking at the design of each page, are all the options there? Are all the resources available to the student? Are the pages organized in a fashion that are easy to understand? Is there a clear understanding of where to find things and where to go? The last piece of the egame puzzle was to create a scoring rubric on which individuals are rewarded points for their effort. Is it clear how to earn points? What deserves more points? Less points? How do you reward simple participation in the egame when individuals fail to earn points in competition? Outside of the context of the egame, how can students earn additional points?
 * 1) Read featured music reviews for ideas
 * 2) See a score board
 * 3) Preview albums and songs
 * 4) Watch flash video tutorials about where to find things and how to start earning points.
 * 5) List of prizes and incentives